Plateless imaging is a method of generating an image directly on a printing cylinder. The coating materials, which form the plateless printing member together with the cylinder surface, are applied on-press. The coating materials are applied in a liquid state and then cured. After each printing job, the cured materials are removed and the printing cylinder is prepared for reuse, either by cleaning the priming cylinder or by replacing a reusable substrate.
The use of cross-linked poly-dimethyl siloxane (PDMS) is well known in waterless offset printing. In existing plateless printing systems, the PDMS coating is cured by heating it to a temperature of approximately 120xc2x0 C. to 150xc2x0 C. In order to prevent toning, the printing cylinder has to be cooled before printing to a temperature of approximately 20xc2x0 C.
It would be desirable to use a coating that eliminates the need for heating the printing press.